A happy accident happened this past weekend. I set out to build some raised beds for my future Zone 1 food garden. I had a general idea of what I was going for. But no idea where I was going to end up.
I started with clearing the vegetation in the area. Consisting mostly of VERY invasive blackberry vines which don't seem to fruit. All noise, no disco.
The next step was marking out the contours with my super nifty homemade a-frame level. After marking out three contours in the area I plan to cultivate, there it was. The graceful arc highest up on the slope. The natural depression tucked into the curve. The scooping contour at the bottom. Clear as anything.
The
land showed me an eye. And when the land shows you an eye, you build the damn eye.
The eastern eyelid is highest up on the slope. The bottom edge of the bed will be a lovely height to have easy access to whatever's growing. It will also be accessible to those with mobility issues, so ageing in place is taken care of.
The pupil is a lovely round bed. A bit more than double reach. This will allow space for a pollinators extravaganza in the middle. The western lid will be the final port of call for all the
water trickling through the eye.
Which brings me to water. With all paths on contour, water will slowdown, spread out, and sink in to the bed below. I've also allowed for a small drainage path through the centre of the beds. The western lid is longer (and lower) than the eastern eyelid, so any excess water will find it's way to the contour path above. Basically all nearby water will find it's way to the eye, where it will stay for a good while.
The gardeners path through the eye while working the garden is a pleasing spiral. You start at the top, with the eastern eyelid on your right. Once the eyebrow bed is in place, you will have raised beds on either side. You carry on through the eye, now keeping the bottom of the western lid on your right as you scoop below the garden. You then duck in between the pupil and the eastern eyelid, keeping the pupil on your right this time. Once you've finished your round (hehe, get it?) through the centre of the eye, you end up where you started. On the northern end of the eastern eyelid.
All of this tomfoolery is happening on quite a slope. My thoughts are if I put stakes on the lower ends of the beds, with woody materials between the stakes, all of the material I've piled in the beds will slowly breakdown. Gravity will do what gravity does and over time, the bed will level itself a bit.
Anybody have any
experience with the self-levelling
garden bed?
This brings me to the materials that I piled in the beds. I started off with a generous layer of woody material that I cleared from the home building site nearby. Not necessarily logs, but plenty of finger sized (from the pinky all the way to the thumb) branches of great lengths. Next, a layer of horse manure from a neighbour. Next, a layer of
straw that hitched a 5 hour ride in an empty refrigerated truck on it's return journey home.
Only the eastern eyelid has all the above fixings. The pupil got a smattering of manure yesterday and the western lid still needs some work. It's just a strangely shaped pile of sticks at the moment.
My friends and family think I've finally lost it after a few months of living by myself in the Wilderness. I thought I'd probably get some more appreciation on this here forum. Observation, suggestions, and questions welcome!
Below, photos:
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